


strong as the willow, brittle at the thought

by okamiwind



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Childhood Friends, First Kiss, Flower fairies, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-28
Updated: 2020-01-28
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:42:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22452100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/okamiwind/pseuds/okamiwind
Summary: baekhyun has known kyungsoo since they were little more than babes emerging from flower buds.
Relationships: Byun Baekhyun/Do Kyungsoo | D.O
Comments: 34
Kudos: 109





	strong as the willow, brittle at the thought

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bibimkokobap](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bibimkokobap/gifts).



> happy birthday, my love! please enjoy ♡

The hollow is deep within the wood, carved into one of the ancient oaks. 

It stretches so high into the sky that no mortal man could ever ascend, but then, they aren’t mortal men. 

Moss stretches, climbs along the walls, and the flowers split through cracks in the wood, fill up all the gaps with blooming petals. Dew drops from the petals of the giant poppies fall through the carved windows, and they travel down the halved bamboo shoots into their buckets, the water so sweet and clear that it almost tastes as good as forest fruit. 

The kitchen is stocked with jars of jams and preserves, water peaches and amelos and eldergrapes, always chock full of fresh fruit and vegetables. The older fairies, they bake bread in the mornings, topped with toasted sesame seeds and drizzled with honey. Giant wheels of cheese are stored in the cellars underground along with countless bottles of cherry wine. There are furry chickens in the pens, goats and cows that roam free in the fields where they grow their grains and herbs. 

In the levels closest to the sun, that’s where they do their magic. Big black cauldrons are filled day and night with quartz dust, foxglove, the glittering venoms from light spiders and snakes. Small bottles and jars sit on apothecary shelves, a rainbow of ingredients to create any number of dusts. 

The hollow is home, deep within the wood there, but there is much to explore, much to see and do.  
  


❀

The bright white sun and the chirping of morning birds is what wakes him that morning, and he stretches out as he untwines himself from his honeysuckle branch.

Baekhyun is nineteen summers strong, and his plant twists and stretches in the summer light. He takes one of the honeysuckle flowers, blows it happily. The hollow comes alive with the sound of his honeysuckle horn, and after that, his job for the day is finished. It is quite a happy living, after all, rousing everyone. He enjoys it most of all, the way they groan and curse him. It isn’t his fault, he thinks. Blame the sun for rising if you hate it so much. 

Baekhyun washes with the dew drops, and in the reflection of the water, he fixes his clothes. His summer top is peach-colored linen with criss-crossing ties at his neck, flares that look like flower petals at his waist. His shorts are deep scarlet red and very comfortable to fly in. His wings, as strong as ever, are streaked with red, orange, and yellow just like the honeysuckles of his plant, and he pushes his copper-colored hair away from his eyes. It hangs into his face sometimes, but he likes it that way. Wild. 

He floats down to the kitchen for breakfast, snagging a couple pieces of honey bread before smearing them with honey and jam. He sandwiches them together as the rest of the fairies come down from their plants, and before they all filter in, he’s gone. 

Baekhyun flies out of the hollow, eating his sandwich, and the crumbs fall down to feed the bunnies that hop out of their burrows to greet the new day. He hums a little song to himself as he flies out of the dense forest, weaving between the oak and maple trees until he is greeted by the great green field, stretching on into the distance. His favorite activity in the morning, as he makes his way to the marshes to catch frogs, is flying so close to the tall emerald grass that the tips tickle his feet. 

He floats and flies, wings easily carrying him, until he makes it to the marsh. 

It is beautiful, peaceful, and he likes to come here to upset only a little of the quiet. Under the weeping willows, Baekhyun sits on the mossy earth and tries to catch the frogs as they leap out of the swamp. He always puts them back where he found them, but it passes the time, and he likes the way they croak at him before they hop away. 

Eventually, Baekhyun tires of such silly things, and he floats away from the marsh, picking some of the willow branches to weave into a basket. Maybe he will eventually take a frog home so it could be his friend. 

He passes by the fields, and some of the growers are working, hands in the soil. Baekhyun hollers at them, and they wave, wings fluttering as they watch him go. 

He heads back to the hollow for a quick lunch, cured meat dipped in spiced mustard, a couple of slices of mild, holey cheese with a cup of sweet lemongrass tea, before he floats off, looking for something to do. 

He happens upon that thing to do as he is floating nearby the river. 

When Baekhyun first met Kyungsoo, they were young, and Baekhyun wondered how a fairy could be so beautiful. His wings looked exactly like the snowdrop petals, white and soft but _iridescent_ , throwing off rainbow colored light when the sun touched them. They fanned out prettily, but curved in towards his body. He could wrap himself in his wings, would often do so when things were a little too loud, when he was tired or scared. 

Kyungsoo sits on one of the strong branches of the blackwood tree that leans over the great river. He is busy with a pen and a book in his hands, wings curved around him like he’s scared of being approached from behind. Of course, that is naught but a challenge to Baekhyun. As silently as he can manage, he flies up behind him, the beating of his wings quiet amid the babbling of the brook. 

“I can hear you, you know,” Kyungsoo says, and he turns around, curls his wings in on himself and aims a smirk at Baekhyun. “Stop spying on me.” 

“Oh, you always ruin the fun,” Baekhyun mutters, taking a seat beside Kyungsoo on the branch overstretching the river. “What are you reading?” 

“Nothing important,” Kyungsoo says, and he snaps the book shut. “What are you doing here?” 

“Looking for something interesting.” 

“Then I suppose you better keep looking,” Kyungsoo says. 

“No,” Baekhyun says, and he reaches out, pets a lock of Kyungsoo’s black hair behind his ear. “I’ve certainly found it.” 

A pretty red blush stains Kyungsoo’s cheeks, and _that_ , Baekhyun would reckon, is his favorite pastime: making Kyungsoo blush. 

“Enough of that,” Kyungsoo says, and his wings gradually unfurl from around his body. “There’s no charming me.” 

“Are you quite sure?” Baekhyun asks. 

“I’m positive.” 

“How could you be sure of such a thing?” 

Kyungsoo looks at Baekhyun curiously, and he begins to explain. “I’ve known you since we were only buds, you think you’re clever, but you’re really very simple, I find myself completely and utterly impervious to yo—”

As Kyungsoo is going off on one of his tangents, wings spread wide open without a care in the world, Baekhyun takes the opportunity to snatch the leather-bound book from Kyungsoo’s hands, floating out over the river with it. 

“What do you think you’re doing?” Kyungsoo asks, voice raising to a pitch Baekhyun’s never heard before, stiff and high. He sticks his hand out, and he trembles with anger. Baekhyun finds that very funny. “Give that back right this instance.” 

“Or what?” Baekhyun asks. “Will you chase me?” 

“I’m not going to _chase_ you. Just give it back, and don’t open it.” 

“Or what?”

“Baekhyun,” Kyungsoo says, and his brows come down angrily even as the wings around him curl in towards himself. “Don’t be stupid.” 

“Come on,” Baekhyun says, and he leaps back and forth in the air, taunting. “Come and take it from me, else I’ll read it.” 

Kyungsoo scowls, and he darts towards Baekhyun with more speed than Baekhyun thought he had. 

Just like that, they are racing through the wood that lines the river. Baekhyun is forced to use every trick in the book to get some distance between himself and Kyungsoo, but Kyungsoo is much quicker than Baekhyun gave him credit for. He dances through the forest, the two of them entangled in a duet, and it isn’t until they are floating over the marsh that Baekhyun stops, holds the book out in front of him. 

“I’ll drop it,” Baekhyun says. 

“No, you wouldn’t,” Kyungsoo says. “You’re not _cruel_.” 

Baekhyun frowns. “No, you’re right.” Instead, he cracks it open, a smile on his face, and Kyungsoo reaches forward to snatch it back out of his hands. 

But he isn’t quick enough. Baekhyun read some of the words, read enough. Read the words _I love him_ , and his name next to it, scrawled with Kyungsoo’s pretty, looping letters. 

“I told you not to read it,” Kyungsoo says, and Baekhyun looks up at him, mouth open. His wings are so tight to his body as they beat, Baekhyun can barely see his face. “I _told_ you.” 

“I’m sorry,” Baekhyun says. “Kyungsoo, I’m sorry, I thought we were only playing, I—” 

“Not everything is a game, don’t you understand?” He scowls, then bites his lip, and his eyes go glassy as he clutches the book to his chest. 

“Please, I didn’t… I’m sorry, please don’t be mad,” Baekhyun says. “Let me—” 

And he goes to embrace Kyungsoo like they’ve done hundreds of times before, Kyungsoo’s arms folded, Baekhyun hugging him close eagerly. 

“No.” He floats back. “Don’t follow me,” Kyungsoo says, and there are angry tears in his eyes, beautiful and sad just the same. “Don’t follow me, I _hate_ you.” 

Baekhyun makes to move towards him, float to close the distance between them, but Kyungsoo flies off quickly, shouting back, “You never _listen_!” 

Baekhyun floats there in the air until he can’t see Kyungsoo any longer, and when he reaches up to brush away the marshy mist, he realizes it isn’t mist. Just his own tears.  
  


❀

If Kyungsoo wasn’t his best friend in the hollow, Baekhyun doesn’t know that it would be so hard, but Kyungsoo _is_ his best friend, so it’s exceedingly hard when Kyungsoo dutifully avoids him for the next several suns.

Baekhyun is so sad that he barely has enough air in his chest to blow the honeysuckle horn, his one and only job. He doesn’t have as much energy as usual, only just has enough to rise in the morning and head to the marsh. His stomach hurts almost all day every day, no matter how many tonics they give him. He barely eats, barely sleeps, can only think of Kyungsoo, the tears in his eyes. What has he done? What has he _done_?

He sits with the frogs, holds one in his hands. He doesn’t have anyone else to talk to, so he might as well make a new friend. The frog in his hand is a little lumpy and dark green, streaked with brown. Sort of ugly, but Baekhyun feels like he deserves that. Doesn’t deserve someone as beautiful and sweet and kind and smart as Kyungsoo, that’s for certain. 

“I didn’t mean to,” Baekhyun tells his new frog friend, and then he rethinks it. “Well, I _did_ mean it, but I didn’t think all this would happen.” He frowns, sighs. “That’s his point, though, isn’t it. I never think.” 

The frog croaks thoughtfully. 

“I didn’t… I never imagined,” Baekhyun says. “He’s always so… well, you know how he is.” Baekhyun makes a face. “Touchy.” He gestures with the frog. “But that’s why I cherish him so very much! He doesn’t pretend to be anything he isn’t. He’s just… _him_.” 

Baekhyun sighs wistfully to the frog before it leaps off the platform of his hands, and Baekhyun sighs even more wistfully, a pitiful sound echoing out from him. 

“Not even a frog wants to be friends with me,” Baekhyun moans. 

“Perhaps it has a good reason.” 

Baekhyun whips around, sees Kyungsoo standing there under the weeping willow. He looks so beautiful, drenched the verdant light, and Baekhyun’s stomach tenses painfully as he stands, starts blabbering his apologies. 

“It’s all right,” Kyungsoo says, and he looks down to Baekhyun’s feet, all muddy since he’s been playing in the marsh. “I just want… I just want things to go back to how they used to be. I don’t want you to—” 

“To what?” 

Kyungsoo looks up, and his eyes are watering, wings tucked close to his body. “Look at me any differently.” He looks back down sharply.

Baekhyun realizes then the enormity of what he feels for Kyungsoo. This is not just a fairy he has known since they were barely out of the bud. This is not just a fairy that he likes to spend his days with. This is the fairy he loves. This is the snow drop that only blooms when he is around. This is the boy he loves. Cherishes. Want to get the chance to have and hold. 

It hits him all at once almost like the time he got hit with the tree branch as he was flying through the forest at full speed. He remembers the slice across his face, the scar that never healed. It hits him like that, with all the ferocity and the strength and a little of the pain, because _how has it taken him so long to realize this?_ How has it taken him this long? He couldn’t eat, he couldn’t sleep. And love is like that. Makes you forget that it takes more than another person to keep you alive. 

He steps forward slowly, and he places his hand on Kyungsoo’s face, raises his gaze until they are looking in each other’s eyes. 

“What are you doing?” Kyungsoo asks softly, red lips barely moving, cheeks streaked pink as Baekhyun takes another step forward, his body against Kyungsoo’s. “Baekhyun, what—” 

“You were right,” Baekhyun whispers. “Before.” 

“Wh—” 

“I never think,” Baekhyun says, and he rubs his thumb against the blush on Kyungsoo’s cheek, smiling. “But I’ve been thinking now. And do you want to know what I think?” 

“What?” Kyungsoo asks, and he wets his lips with his tongue, shining and sweet. 

Baekhyun cannot help himself, leans forward to taste for himself. He kisses Kyungsoo, just a simple press of their lips, and he holds Kyungsoo carefully in his hands like he is holding a water lily, fragile and good. 

When they part, a tear falls down Kyungsoo’s face, and Baekhyun laughs, brushing it away. 

“I love you,” Baekhyun says. “And I’m sorry it took me so long to figure it out.” 

Kyungsoo’s lips go tight, and for a second, Baekhyun is concerned that maybe Kyungsoo’s changed his mind, had a big epiphany. In the next moment, though, Kyungsoo is taking Baekhyun’s face in his hands, wings thrown wide. He kisses Baekhyun, soft and sweet, and there under the weeping willow, they kiss until the sun sets, the world painted red, pink, and gold.  
  


❀

Every day, Baekhyun rises with the sun, and he sounds his honeysuckle horn. After that, he goes down for a spot of breakfast, grabbing enough for two. He heads back up through the hollow, sees Kyungsoo still clutching his snowdrop in sleep.

“Time to rise,” Baekhyun says gently, and he shakes Kyungsoo awake until he is frowning up at Baekhyun, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. “It’s a new day.” 

It takes Kyungsoo a moment to wake, but when he does, he stands up, kisses Baekhyun sweetly before heading over to wash his face. 

“Good morning,” Baekhyun says. 

“Good morning,” Kyungsoo replies, and he turns back. “Do you have a plan for the day?” 

“I’ve already packed breakfast,” Baekhyun says. “There’s a herd of deer in the east. Six new fawn. They all still have their spots.” Baekhyun shrugs. “I thought you might like to see them.” 

Kyungsoo brushes down his clothes, and he winds his arms around Baekhyun’s body, the warmth of sleep still thick on him, seeping through Baekhyun’s clothes too. They kiss as yellow morning light streaks through the windows of the hollow, and Baekhyun makes a noise of satisfaction against Kyungsoo’s mouth. 

“That would be very pleasant, I think,” Kyungsoo says, and he wipes Baekhyun’s mouth with his thumb before smiling. “Let me just get my book.” 

Baekhyun waits patiently, smiles as he watches Kyungsoo float through his room. “Am I allowed to look this time?” 

Kyungsoo looks back over his shoulder as he grabs his pen from the table. He turns back as he stands in the light. His iridescent wings… they are thrown open, sending beams of blue, pink, and purple all over Baekhyun’s world. 

“Yes,” Kyungsoo says, “I suppose there wouldn’t be any harm in that.”  
  


❀

**Author's Note:**

> this is for emilio estevez, one of the kindest, most beautiful people i have had the chance to love. thank you for being my friend, thank you for always making me laugh, thank you for being such a beautiful light in this everdark world. you make it fun to be alive. thank you. happy birthday, my friend ♡
> 
> [my twitter](https://twitter.com/okamiwind) | [my curiouscat](https://curiouscat.me/okamiwind)


End file.
